NISHIMURA Akihiro

Minister of the Environment, Japan

Mr. Nishimura was born in 1960 in Fukuoka Prefecture. He graduated from the Graduate School of Political Science at Waseda University. After teaching at Waseda University and other academic institutions, he served as policy secretary to a member of the House of Representatives and secretary to the Minister of Finance. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in November 2003, running for Miyagi District 3. After serving as Parliamentary Vice-Minister for the Cabinet Office, State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, State Minister of Reconstruction, State Minister for the Cabinet Office, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary and Chair of the Committee on Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, he was appointed Minister of the Environment and Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness in August 2022.

KOITABASHI Satoshi

Vice Governor, Kanagawa Prefectural Government

Vice Governor Koitabashi entered Kanagawa Prefectural Government in 1986. He served in various positions, such as Director of the School Affairs Division, Executive Director of the Policy Department, Executive Director of the Office of the Governor, Secretary to the Governor for Administrative Policy and Director General of the General Administration Bureau. He was assigned to the current position of Vice Governor in April 2020.

Vice Governor completed study at Department of International and Business Law, Graduate School of Yokohama National University.

TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko

President, IGES

TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko graduated from the Department of Geography, the University of Tokyo in 1974. He obtained M.Agr. and Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo. He served as a Professor at the Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, and as Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science at the University of Tokyo from 1997 to 2012. He also served as a Vice-Rector and Senior Vice-Rector at the United Nations University from 2008 to 2016. From 2016, he has served as a Senior Visiting Professor at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). He was Director and Professor/Project Professor of IR3S at the University of Tokyo from 2017 to 2019. He has served as President, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) since July 2017. He took up the position as Project Professor of the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) at the University of Tokyo in April 2019. He has served, inter alia, as Chair of the Central Environmental Council, Government of Japan, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sustainability Science (Springer Nature) and Distinguished Chair, Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi.

He specialises in landscape ecology, landscape planning, and sustainability science.